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Another Saturday Night…

This was my first Saturday night at home since March…and we had a party to go to! It was a casual affair, but still–I spend about 97% of my life wearing either work clothes or pajamas. I don’t have many opportunities to dress for a social occasion that isn’t a wedding. Here’s what I came up with:

Drapey, 3/4-length sleeve, oversized cardigan. Merona, purchased at Goodwill, September 2012. When I bought this, I already had three cardigans in exactly this color. But each one is slightly different! Seriously! The other ones would not have gone with this outfit. I think this was Target overstock that wound up at Goodwill: it was brand new, and they had a lot of them, like 10, in many different sizes. There is really no such thing as too many cardigans, or even too many turquoise cardigans.

Gray dress with drawstring waist and black trim, Calvin Klein, gift from my mother-in-law ca. 2012. This is a classic gift from my mother-in-law: a way nicer brand than I would ever buy for myself, and a style that I am convinced will not work on me at all (I wasn’t sure I would ever be able to wear it), which, to my shock, has become a staple of my “dressing for social occasions” wardrobe. It has also made an appearance at a bridal shower and rehearsal dinner–for different brides, don’t worry. It’s made out of a super, super soft jersey-like material. It can be clingy, so you must wear suitable undergarments (including a cami to mitigate gaping at the neck and arms), but overall I love this thing. You know, it took me a long time to learn that if your correctly-sized clothes cling unflatteringly, it’s not because there’s something wrong with your body. It’s because of physics: Your clothes aren’t going to magically hang on your body without actually touching it. For a long time, I felt like foundation garments were “cheating.” If I couldn’t wear the thing without them, I didn’t deserve to wear it at all. That is (so seriously) messed up. Jersey doesn’t discriminate. It clings to all of our butts the same way, regardless of their shape or size. If you see someone in a jersey dress, but you don’t see any bulges or lines, their body isn’t behaving better than yours. They just have more powerful underwear.

Black tights

Black ankle boots I feel like I should just develop some kind of shorthand for these two things, since I’m wearing them more often than not.

Ostentatious silver and rhinestone chandelier earrings that I purchased with Robyn in L.A. in 2011. But you can’t see them very well. Earrings should be like perfume: only noticeable to people within beer-handing distance. I’m actually not sure I believe that at all. I kind of feel like earrings should be conversation pieces for the room at large. What do you think ?

I feel like I managed to strike a balance between “It’s almost the end of April!” (Bright colors! Lightweight knit! Exposed neck!) and “It still feels like winter outside !” (Black tights! Boots!). Plus this outfit consisted of all stuff I already had in my closet, but which had never been worn in this combination before. A small triumph!